Clyde Wayne Crews of the Competitive Enterprise Institute has produced the latest edition of his "Ten Thousand Commandments: An Annual Snapshot of the Federal Regulatory State." It provides a sad tale of expensive meddling that is impoverishing all of us.

There are governments which devote a larger GDP to government. However, no nation has a bigger government than America. Observes Crews: "in absolute terms, the U.S. government is the largest government on the planet--whether one's metric is revenues, expenditures, deficits, or accumulated debt. Only seven other nations top $1 trillion in annual government revenues, and none but the United States collects over $2 trillion."